Multi-port fluid transfer valves have long been known in the art. These valves typically have three or more ports and the ability to selectively open the various ports to one another in different combinations depending on the number of ports. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,048,192 to Murphy, Jr. shows a surgical valve with three or four ports and the ability to open any pair of ports to one another. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,322 to Adams shows a valve with four ports and the ability to selectively connect different pairs of the ports. While there are numerous medically related procedures in which it is desirable to cross connect various ports of a valve, there are some situations in which cross connection between certain ports creates the potential for undesirable cross contamination, undermining a particular medical procedure and/or preventing or delaying a patient from receiving a desired treatment.
FIG. 2 shows a prior art Y-type blood/solution set 10' utilized in a variety of circumstances to transfuse fluids to a patient. While these blood/solution sets work satisfactorily in many situations, physicians often encounter cross contamination problems when a solution bag connected to bag connector 16a is allowed to flow into the fluid container attached to connector 16b, or vice versa.
One example situation might be when blood/solution set 10' is being utilized to deliver a medicated saline solution from a first bag connected to connector 16a, and a sudden emergency requires the quick delivery of blood or blood product from a bag attached to connector 16b. In order to hasten the delivery of the blood to the patient, the physician may squeeze or mechanically compress the bag attached to connector 16b in order to increase the flow rate of fluid through the filter and other components downstream from the bag. Unfortunately, in many such emergency situations, both clamps 18a and 18b are accidentally left open and the blood flowing through connector 16b is permitted to flow down through Y-connector 20 and back up into the medicated saline solution bag attached to connector 16a, contaminating the medicated saline solution with whole blood or blood product. In this situation, the contaminated saline solution must be discarded, and the physician is left with guessing how much of the blood unit was lost to cross contamination. At the same time, the transfusion of emergency blood to the patient has been delayed because of the blood flowing across to the saline bag rather than down through the filter and other components to the patient. Further precious time will likely be wasted in the time it takes to close clamp 18a, remove the contaminated saline bag and attach a new medicated saline solution bag to connector 16a, which normally must be resumed after the blood unit has been delivered to the patient. While the prior art Y-type blood/solution set 10' and the valves discussed above have the ability to avoid cross contamination, they include no fail-safe means for preventing cross contamination.
The present invention is intended to overcome the potential cross contamination problems associated with the prior art fluid transfer medical devices.